Smooth Calabash (Viking) Tobacco Pipe

"Lithe, elegant and slightly tighter in arc than most iterations of the shape, there's a rightness to Tonni's Calabash compositions that the shape often lacks in the hands of other pipe makers." - Sykes Wilford

Sykes might have not been directly referencing this particular Calabash design when he penned those words back in 2012, yet they're no less true today. From the low-profile dome of the rim, to the subtle taper of the bowl, to the tight-knit, yet sweeping nature of the transition, to the graceful S-curve of the shank and stem. there is a definitive rightness to this Calabash design — taking a usually ostentatious, or at least whimsical shape and executing it with minimalist beauty and graceful poise. It may not be a functional Calabash in the traditional sense, but Tonni's created a masterful facsimile — even turning the rim with a sharp lip and leaving it unstained to create the illusion of a removable chamber cap. With a form this impressive, the fact that it has a "Viking" grade's worth of straight and flame grain is but icing on the cake.

- Andrew Wike